These analytics require some explanation and so I’ll give you a brief rundown.

The conversation raterefers to the number of audience comments or replies per post and provides quantitative as well as qualitative data about the audience. The amplification rate refers to the rate at which your followers take your content and share it through their network. The applauserate is the number of likes per post.
These measurements provide unique statistics that indicate what your brand is doing well and where it can improve.

Pizza Hut nailed it, with consistency cross the board and should just keep on keeping on.

Curiously, Domino’s takes the lead in the applause rate. “Liking” a post is the least engaging thing a follower can do, and so one might consider that the applause rate may not be the greatest indication of effectiveness. If the goal is to maximize audience participation, is Domino’s is posting enough engaging material?

Don’t let the graphic deceive you, Little Ceasars‘ is doing well. The brand is consistent in all three categories; the numbers are just smaller. This makes sense, with 6x less fans than Pizza Hut.

According to the study, Papa John’s‘ activity is dangerous because they have many comments but few likes or shares. What would cause this? A closer look…

Check out a previous post on Papa John’s for more info on this controversy.

Lastly, Papa Murphy’s is doing alright. It might not hurt for them, like Domino’s, to reach out to their fans by posting more engaging content.

I was totally enlightened by these social media metrics and glad to share them with you guys. I think the most important thing to take away from this analysis is that numbers mean very little if the context and meaning behind them are neglected. These metrics are a way to view your campaign comprehensively, but brands should not make the mistake of ignoring the content behind the numbers.

For more information about how to measure a brand’s social media effectiveness, I reccomend Occam’s Razor‘s “Best Social Media Metrics: Conversation, Amplification, Applause, Economic Value”.

If you’ve read my previous posts you’ll know all about Domino’s radical marketing strategy called the “Oh Yes We Did” campaign. The strategy was groundbreaking for the industry. Imagine: a multi-national company being honest and transparent in their food products and marketing; it’s unheard of!

Way before Domino’s began to practice the novel concept [hint: sarcasm] of “transparency”, odds are, your local independently owned pizza shop was doing it first. Take Goodman’s American Pie in my hometown of Ludlow, Vermont for example. Goodman’s American Pie is located less than a mile away from the well known ski resort, Okemo Mountain. On a typical Friday night in the winter “the wait” for a pizza can be up to two and a half hours as mountain-goers process into town from NY, NJ, MA, CONN, etc. This video was shot in the winter of 2011, on a Friday night, before the mayhem, and shows the everybody the pizza making process– from start to finish. How’s that for transparency?

This video is part two of a series called Behind The Bus, which you can take literally, because what separates the kitchen area from the dining area is a extended VW Bus. See the first video here.

Other things GAP does well: The small business has a fairly static website with basic information anyone would need to know to order and pick up a pizza. However, they have a very activeFacebook with new posts almost every day and over 800 “Likes”. They also have a Twitter (@woodfiredza), with fewer posts and fewer followers (about 130).

The best part about Goodman’s American Pie’s marketing strategy: it’s unpretentious. The Facebook page is handled by the owners who post whatever they want: pizza promotions and events–yes, but also family photos, memes, Clint Eastwood pictures, mustaches, car photos–anything of interest. And customers eat it up! Unlike Domino’s “transparency” campaign, Goodman’s American Pie doesn’t have to pay through the roof (over 185.5 million dollars annually) trying to convince customers they run an honest business. Transparency is automatic for GAP, and that’s evident for anyone who follows their Facebook account.

In November of 2011, Domino’s Pizza released their new app and advergame, “Pizza Hero“. An advergame is a game expressly created for the purpose of promoting a product or service. Pizza Hero is awesome. The player is taken through the entire pizza making process, having you knead dough, spread sauce, add cheese and toppings, cook the pie, and slice and box it. You compete with other users because based on the quality of your pie you are awarded points. The better you get at the game, the more challenging it gets. The difficulty isn’t the only thing that increases. As you play, you get hungrier, too!

The point of an advergame is to get people thinking about your product, but Pizza Hero goes one step further. If playing this game has you salivating at the mouth, have no worries, you can order a pizza for delivery right from the game itself!

Pizza Hero does it right. This advergame is playing off of Domino’s famous transparency campaign, allowing the public to “participate” in what goes on in the Domino’s kitchen. The game graphics are realistic enough to make you hungry for a steaming pizza, and at the end if you decide to act on this hunger impulse, you can order a pie from the app itself.

For a few decades now, there have been shifts in the percentage of people who make their own meals at home. The numbers have been steadily decreasing as people rely more and more on take out and delivery for dinner. Pizza Hero is sort of interesting in that it allows the consumer to “participate: in the pizza-making process so that at the end when they pay the delivery driver it’s almost like they made it themselves. What do you guys think about Domino’s Pizza Hero as an advergame? Entertaining, persuasive, or both?

Domino’s Pizza launched their “Oh Yes We Did” campaign about two years ago. The campaign was radically different then what we were used to seeing for advertising in the pizza industry. Much of the campaign focuses on the CEO of the company, Patrick Doyle, showing photos and testimonials of bad customer experiences, and admitting that Domino’s pizza sucked, but it doesn’t anymore. Take a look.

“Domino’s pizza crust is like cardboard” “Bring on the processed cheese” “Microwave pizza is far superior” “Boring, artificial, imitation of what pizza can be”

Confronting their harshest critics by admitting that their pizza sucked was a risky move–but it paid off. In just one year, this transparent approach increased same-store sales by 12%, definitely a record breaker in the pizza industry. Truth sells. Creating trust between the business and the client on a small scale matters.